A study out of Europe suggests wind power has reduced electricity prices by €3-23 per megawatt-hour. Wind can replace coal in the spot market at low demand periods, and gas at peak periods, averaging down the marginal cost of electricity. This conclusion is consistent with an observation in my ongoing post Investing in CleanTech, using Casey Energy's analysis, which shows wind competitive with base power sources (whereas solar remains 3x more expensive). This advantage is due to the lower marginal cost of wind, once the turbines are in place. The problem with scaling wind remain the heavy subsidies to justify the outlay of capital, the need for new power grids, and the local NIMBY pushback.
Two scenarios for S&P500 in the very short-term, with possible targets of 1234 or 1150:
http://trendlines618.blogspot.com/2010/04/s-short-term-two-scenarios.html
Posted by: trendlines | Thursday, April 22, 2010 at 11:51 PM